HARDY AMIES COUTURE

BARELY there lace minis, ultra curvy empire-line belted dresses and flesh-baring slashes in goddess gowns may not be synonymous with the Hardy Amies 's first couture collection was a fitting, modern tribute to the royal designer who died last year. Celebrity model Lisa Butcher lead an entourage of models whose knotted hair was as slick as the tailoring of their outfits was impeccable. But a fresh, raunchy attitude revealed that Garlant intends to woo a new customer now that he has full control of the creative aesthetic at the Savile Row atelier. "The show was all about underlining the tailoring skills of the house," Garlant, the 41-year-old protégé of Amies, told reporters after the show. "Tailoring was always Sir Hardy's strong point from the beginning but it is more than just about suits. We are not about exotic colour combinations and prints here, it is all about cut and shape." But would Sir Hardy, who once famously said that "anything blatantly sexy can never be chic", have approved of a collection that included zip-sided leather bodices with low sweetheart necklines, bondage buckles on cleavage-revealing necklines and frock coats that hung open over perfectly bronzed, flat tummies - all of which was accompanied by thumping drum 'n' bass? Garlant has no doubt. "Remember he was born before women got the vote and he started dressing women in the restrictive Forties," he told the Evening Standard. "But as a person, Hardy was very much about sex." (February 5 2004, AM)